Pierra Steps In for No-Show Holland

Cal State Fullerton trainer Ivan Pierra had never walked in snow or coached a college basketball team before last week, but after accompanying the Titans on their two-game swing through Iowa, he can now boast of doing both.

Pierra was pressed into coaching duties at the start of the second half of Thursday’s game against Northern Iowa when Fullerton Coach Brad Holland and assistant Ed Goorjian failed to make it onto the court in time.

The walk from the UNI-Dome locker room to the playing floor was some 150 yards long, and Holland, making his first rookie mistake as Titan coach, simply misjudged the time it would take to cover the distance.

There was some confusion on the Titan bench as officials prepared to put the ball in play for the second half, with players looking at each other, wondering who should start.

But Pierra stepped in, gave Fullerton players an inspirational speech, quickly designed an effective press-break offense, made several strategic substitutions to boost the Titan lineup and led his troops into a battle they eventually won, 66-55.

OK, so maybe we’re exaggerating a bit.

“The referee helped us out,” Holland said. “He told Ivan to just start the lineup that was on the floor at the end of the first half.”

Pierra didn’t underestimate his contribution, though.

“Hey, I’m 1-0 as a coach,” he said.

And Holland is 1-0 in games in which he pulls a no-show to start the second half.

“That was weird--in all my years of basketball and in all of Ed’s years in the game, that’s never happened before,” Holland said. “We moseyed our way to the dome and, surprise, surprise. I wasn’t embarrassed, I was just amazed the second half had started and I wasn’t on the bench.”

Bark for Title IX: Titan center Sean Williams didn’t realize it, but as he prepared to jump center in the new $12.5-million Drake Center for Saturday’s game against the Bulldogs, he stood over a floor painting of a mascot that is committed to gender equity.

As construction of the 7,000-seat arena was being completed in the fall, a Des Moines Register gossip columnist wrote a story saying that some Drake women’s coaches objected to the Bulldog mascot because it was too nasty looking.

Drake administrators considered painting the letter “D” at midcourt but thought it looked too much like Duke’s logo. So they commissioned a series of sketches, seeking a different look to the Bulldog.

The final result: The whiskers were removed from the Bulldog, its jowls were tightened, and athletic department employees named the new mascot, “Pat,” after the androgynous character of “Saturday Night Live” fame.

“We had a lot of fun with it,” said Jean Berger, senior women’s administrator at Drake. “Newsweek magazine even called and wants to write something about it.”

News bites: Former Titan women’s volleyball Coach Jim Huffman made quite a splash Monday, staging a press conference in front of Langsdorf Hall to discuss his $1.2-million wrongful termination suit against the school that was filed in Orange County Superior Court Monday.

Camera crews from Los Angeles television stations KCBS, KNBC, KABC, KCAL and the Fox network, as well as a reporter from KNX radio, were on hand to hear Huffman, his attorney and brother, Jared Huffman, and Tammy Bruce, president of the L.A. chapter of the National Organization for Women, speak against the school.

Huffman was fired in March after staging successful legal proceedings against the school, which had tried to drop women’s volleyball in January but reinstated the sport as part of an out-of-court settlement in May. Huffman contends he was fired in retaliation for the gender-equity suit.

Jared Huffman said attempts to settle the case before filing the suit were unsuccessful, but Nancy Carlin, the attorney who represented the school in the last case, said there’s still a possibility the case will never reach trial.

“I don’t think all hope of settlement is gone,” Carlin said. “That doesn’t mean any of their allegations are true, but it’s hard to talk about what to settle until I see what their claims are.”

Big-time boot: Several players from the now-defunct Titan football program have arranged recruiting trips to a variety of schools--most of them in the Big West Conference--but the most sought-after player has been punter Noel Prefontaine.

Prefontaine, a freshman from Oceanside El Camino High, had a 41.7-yard average in 71 punts last season, the third-best season average in school history. He had an exceptional game Sept. 19 against Georgia, averaging 45.8 yards for 10 punts in a 56-0 loss.

Fullerton Coach Gene Murphy said Prefontaine has made tentative plans to visit Arizona, Arizona State, Kansas and Hawaii. Among the other schools showing interest are Georgia, UCLA, Oklahoma and Nevada.

Titan Notes

In addition to nonconference games at Colorado and Colorado State next December, the Fullerton men’s basketball team will play in the 1993 Freedom Bowl Classic at the Anaheim Arena, along with UC Irvine and two other teams to be determined. Tournament officials have been trying to lure national powers Indiana and Kansas. . . . With 13 blocked shots in three games, Titan center Sean Williams is on pace to block 112 shots, which would double Derek Jones’ single-season school record of 56, set in 1988-89, and shatter former UC Santa Barbara center Eric McArthur’s Big West Conference mark of 89, set in 1989-90. . . . Titan forward Bruce Bowen has 405 career rebounds, making him only the 10th Titan with 400 or more. . . . Through three games, guard Allison Jackson leads the women’s basketball team with a 20.7 average. . . . The Titan wrestling team returns to action Saturday when it plays host to UC Davis (11 a.m.), Portland State (1 p.m.) and Western State (3 p.m.) in a quad meet. Those three opponents and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fresno State, Stanford and the Calgary Heat Wrestling Club will join Fullerton in the California Open, which begins at 9 a.m. and will run through Sunday in Titan Gym.